As cost and competition pressures intensify on the construction, infrastructure, mining and energy sectors, the last thing companies can afford is delays to heavy lifts involved in essential maintenance, machinery upgrades and project installations.
Such work – including bridge, road, power plant, mineral, energy process equipment installation and maintenance – typically offers a narrow window of opportunity during costly downtime when all equipment must be immediately to hand.
Enerpac is expanding the availability and optimising the delivery time in Australasia of its range of high tonnage cylinders, which are designed to handle up to 1,000 tonnes each, with higher capacities possible in custom orders.
The CLL, CLP, CLRG, CLS and CLSG ranges are designed to handle 50 to 1,000 tonnes with pressures up to 700bar (10,000 PSI), in demanding lifting applications such as construction, infrastructure, mining, energy, power generation and oil and gas.
“These cylinders are already the bywords for safety and reliability throughout Australasia – they are widely used in construction and infrastructure projects, as well as coal and mineral processing plants where outputs are being massively increased by hundreds of millions of tonnes compared with 10 years ago, says Enerpac National Sales Manager, Darryl Lange.
“Major projects such as these are not interested in cylinders sold at a low price with little product support or manufacturer accountability if anything should go wrong.
“We’ve found that the crucial requirements for customers are stock availability, lead time and rigorous quality control with traceability, criteria in which Enerpac has been an Australasian leader for more than 50 years.
“When lifting or lowering heavy loads, dangers and safety risks are posed if the lifting technology doesn’t perform. You just can’t afford to cut any corners with such vital tasks.”
High tonnage Enerpac cylinders are benchmarks of safety and reliability. CLRG and CLSG cylinders feature an integral stop ring which provides piston blow out protection, while CLL and CLP cylinders feature a safety lock nut for mechanical load holding. These feature provides additional safety.
Enerpac’s heavy lift cylinder range is complemented by Enerpac’s high-efficiency, high-safety synchronous lifting technology from its integrated solutions operations, which allows multiple cylinders to be used simultaneously, to lift massive structures. One example of this in recent years was in Malaysia, where Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering (MMHE) used 352 compact, high-pressure 300-tonne cylinders to lift and skid the 43,000-tonne Gumusut-Kakap floating oil production system onto a vessel waiting in the Straits of Johor.
While the Enerpac technology employed is capable of lifting and shifting far greater weights than the Gumusut-Kakap FPS (it can lift more than the equivalent of the 52,000-tonne weight of the steel in the Sydney Harbour Bridge, for example) it the system’s ability to sense and control any deflection of the pontoons and main superstructure structure that won it plaudits for protecting structural integrity throughout the lift-weigh-shift-and-launch process.
The CLRG and CLSG ranges are similar, except that CLRG offers double-acting performance, whereas CLSG is appropriate where only single-acting cylinders are required.
Both ranges feature:
- A baked enamel outside finish and plated pistons provide superior corrosion protection
- A plunger wiper to reduce contamination, which helps to extend cylinder life
- An integral stop ring to provide piston blow-out protection
The CLL range of lock nut cylinders come with mechanical locking of the load. Instead of relying solely on valves for load holding, this feature provides high safety during heavy lifts for maintenance and installation.
The CLP range of pancake lock nut cylinders have and low height and are suitable for confined spaces. The CLP range also comes with lock nut load holding, as well as overflow ports that function as a stroke limiter.
The CLS range of cylinders are used where only single-acting cylinders are required and have a lower height than the CLSG range. They also come with an overflow port which functions as a stroke limiter.